For the Love of Being Bound
by Tenpa-Neko
Summary: Can the team pull themselves together for the sake of one of their own? Will Jack be able to accept help from creatures whose very existence is a paradox? Will someone be able to save Ianto...  from himself? [JackIanto][Rated for later chapters]


**Hullo!! Tenpa here. This is b****asically a Tenpa episode of torchwood. if I could write one – this would be it! **

**Characerization tapers off and becomes AU in later chappies especially. **

**Warning : VERY EMO IANTO**

** I tried very hard to keep Jack in character – I hate when people make him all mushy and sentimental in fics. That's one part of the canon I MUST stick to. **

**I know … I know… Ianto is insanely emo in this fic. SORRY! I just have this weird obsession with wanting to make my fav. Character go through hell. If you read my other fanfics you'd know what I mean. :cough:**

**- keep in mind this started off as a normal fanfic!**

**And then the plot bunnies attacked.**

**Oh and if you're reading my other fic (Blood Rain) - 'dun worry. Update on the way!**

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**For the Love of Being Bound**

Chapter 1 _"Sticks and Stones may break my bones - but words, they scar forever"_

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_A completely normal girl. A completely average girl. Average height, average weight, average short cut brown hair, average brown eyes, and average clothes._

_She walked down the street, tripping over a stone once. She crossed her arms, hurrying along. Nobody would ever notice this girl in a crowd of hundreds. She was just another ant in the sea of people. just another girl with just another normal life._

_So why can't he look away?_

* * *

The Hub was empty. The remnants of shattered coffee cups littered the floor. Myfanwy's screams echoed throughout the room. A large file cabinet on one side of the room had been tipped over, papers falling out of it and scattering over the ground. Every so often the wind from the computer fans picked one or two up and blew them across the hub.

In the only corner of the room that wasn't rounded, was a shaking figure. It was almost impossible to see the dark shape in the corner, almost impossible to hear the hopelessly stifled sobs.

He sat in the corner, legs drawn up to his chest, arms wrapped around them - head bowed. He was shaking violently, angry sobs bursting out even though he was biting his lip hard enough to bleed in an effort to remain silent.

A bang echoed throughout the hub, and Ianto's head shot up, eyes wide. After a minute, he allowed himself to relax.

_Just thunder... not the door_

He swallowed shakily, stretching his arms out in front of him and examining the tears in his jacket now stained with blood. His own.

He shut his eyes, trying to block out the memories. Memories from then and memories of what he had just done in a fit of uncontrollable emotion. Opening his eyes, Ianto cast them over the damage caused by his fit - and he winced in shame.

_Pathetic. Is this the only way you can react?_

He slowly got to his feet, brushing dirt off his pants. He sighed, and set to work.

* * *

The door of the hub swung open nearly an hour later, and the rest of the group trooped in wearily. They were greeted by an immaculate hub and an equally imaculate Ianto with his usual smile in place.

He had on a different suit, and his eyes were ever so slightly red. Everyone just walked straight past him with the usual pleas for coffee.

He lowered his eyes to the ground and allowed his smile to fade as he wandered off towards the kitchen, unaware of Jack's appraising eyes following him.

* * *

"Right then!" Jack rubbed his hands together, an expression of childish eagerness on his face as he faced the rest of his team in the meeting room.

Owen leaned back in his chair, the front legs rising off the ground. He rolled his eyes despairingly at Jack - all the while pretending to ignore Gwen who was sitting across from him. She was leaning forward, hands cradling her chin as she looked at Jack, every once in a while glancing at Owen hastily.

Tosh was leaning her head into one hand, her other hand tapping a complicated rhythm out onto the table. Her mouth was forming words as she talked to herself silently. She was lost in her latest translation program and was anything but happy to have been pulled away from in whilst in the middle of a breakthrough.

Gwen had stopped paying attention to Jack completely now, favoring instead to curl a strand of hair around her index finger. Owen's eyes were straying to it, watching as she curled it and then let it fall.

Jack raised an eyebrow at his team's blatant disinterest in their latest case. He coughed accusingly at them – loud enough so they knew he was getting annoyed. Toshiko stopped her tapping, Gwen dropped her hand down to her side, and Owen banged his chair onto the ground as he tried to sit up straight. Gwen and Tosh were staring at him with slightly apologetic looks on their faces, whilst Owen's scowl was only slightly less pronounced.

Jack ran a hand through his hair, choosing to just ignore them and get on with it.

"We have a problem folks."

"Don't we always." Jack grinned cheekily at Owen's grunted remark.

"You love it."

Owen lifted a corner of his mouth in a half-scowl, half-smirk before turning away.

Jack cleared his throat. "Anyway, We do actually have a problem this time."

Gwen laughed slightly, "Good thing too, there's such a thing as getting tired of hoaxes."

Tosh's quiet laugh echoed through the room as Jack nodded his head in agreement.

"People have been flat out disappearing." Jack continued. "One minute they existed, and then not the next."

"Isn't that for the police? Why should torchwood have anything to do with it – its probably just a gang of kidna-." Jack interrupted Owen before he could finish his sentence.

"And do ordinary kidnappers delete every trace of the person? Do they somehow manage to erase his birth certificate, marriage certificate, high school diploma, receipts, bills, taxes, house, pets - in short, everything the person has ever been connected to? The only remnants of the person left in the entire world is his family. And when they try to say their son or wife or whoever has gone missing they get locked up in a mental institution because there is **no evidence that person ever existed. **Do ordinary kidnappers do that?"

Owen coughed slightly. "Might do.."

Jack opened his mouth, but the sound of a door opening drew everone's attention the back of the room where Ianto was standing with a tray of coffee - looking left out.

"What's going on?" Ianto set the coffee on the table, looking at the rest of the team curiously.

"Nothing." Owen scowled at him, then winced as Gwen kicked him under the table.

Hurt flickered across Ianto's face for just a second, before he managed to wipe away any trace of emotion. He nodded his head towards the coffee.

"Let me know if you need anymore." He looked at the rest of them for a couple of seconds before leaving.

Ianto's retreating back had never seemed so thin to Jack.

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_Preview For Chappi. 2_

_Ianto was slumped over his desk, shoulders shaking, but still not making a sound._

_Jack was a silent figure behind him, watching him. Ianto hiccupped slightly and Jack's hard expression softened. He put his hand on Ianto's shoulder, gripping it tightly._

_Neither man was watching the CCTV screen that glowed brightly from the computer on Ianto's desk. Neither man saw noticed the small figure in the corner of the screen._

_Big Mistake. _

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**I am aware this is very short and undoubtably total crap. But still - review me. Don't let me continue raving on with a retarded fanfic that nobody likes - MmK?**

**BTW : I have no beta. all mistakes are mine own. Maybe somebody would like to beta...:)?**

**REVIEW PLEASE! Reviews make meh pathetic angst-filled world go round.**


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